Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen have announced their latest "P.U.-litzer Prizes" for "stinkiest media performances of the year." Winners of the uncoveted award include:

• Michael Gordon of the New York Times, who previously used unnamed official sources to promote the invasion of Iraq with wildly inaccurate reports of Iraqi weapons programs, and used similar unnamed sources in 2007 to make a case for war with Iran.
• Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball, for his fawning praise of U.S. presidential candidate Fred Thompson's "sex appeal" and "star quality."
• CBS correspondent Jeff Greenfield, for falsely claiming that Americans don't want government-funded healthcare.
• CNN's Lou Dobbs, for falsifying U.S. disease statistics to support his claim that illegal immigrants were bringing "once eradicated diseases" into the country.

"For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure," writes Jason Leopold. "At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, soldiers on the battlefield have told disturbing stories of being force-fed fundamentalist Christianity by highly controversial, apocalyptic 'End Times' evangelists, who have infiltrated US military installations throughout the world with the blessing of high-level officials at the Pentagon. Proselytizing among military personnel has been conducted openly, in violation of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution."

The war in Iraq is notable, observes Michael Massing, for the number of "books by soldiers" that have "appeared while the fighting was still going on -- accounts written not just by generals like Tommy Franks but also by lieutenants, sergeants, reservists, and privates. Such works have been largely ignored by the mass media, which is too bad, for they provide a grunt's-eye view of the war that is often far richer, and rawer, than anything available in our newspapers or on TV." Massing reviews a number of them, including Paul Reickhoff's ''Chasing Ghosts'' and Nathaniel Fick's ''One Bullet Away.'' Their first-hand accounts, Massing writes, provide a vivid reminder that "war is about killing." As Fick puts it, combat "nearly unhinged me." Worst of all were the "blanket accolades and thanks from people 'for what you guys did over there.' Thanks for what, I wanted to ask -- shooting kids, cowering in terror behind a berm, dropping artillery on people's homes?"

As a paid corporate lobbyist, U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani helped Purdue Pharma defend its illegal activities to promote the drug Oxycontin, according to New York Times reporters Barry Meier and Eric Lipton. "As a celebrity, Mr. Giuliani helped the company win several public relations battles, playing a role in an effort by Purdue to persuade an influential Pennsylvania congressman, Curt Weldon, not to blame it for OxyContin abuse," they write. "Despite these efforts, Purdue suffered a crushing defeat in May ... when the company and three top executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges. ... Together, they paid $634.5 million in fines and payments. After years of denial and a high-profile public relations campaign, the company was forced to admit that it had misled doctors and patients."

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we look at Santas flacking for the coal industry, how charitable it is to buy stuff, and a hot and heavy anti-smoking campaign. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps there are between Jolly Old Saint Nick and parentless kids. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

From the musical "Walmartopia"In 2005, the Edelman PR firm created the front group Working Families for Wal-Mart on behalf of their client, the retail giant. With Wal-Mart funding, Edelman ran the faux citizens' group to counter union critics like WakeUpWalMart.com, founded by the United Food and Commercial Workers and Wal-Mart Watch, founded by the Service Employees International Union. Edelman has been removed from the project due to Wal-Mart's decision to bring the front group in-house. Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar said the plan is to "retool the group and its website as a platform for employees and consumers to speak out in favor of the world's largest retailer, rather than the outside supporters it has featured so far. 'We believe the best way to tell our story is to bring Working Families for Wal-Mart 'in-house' and operate it as an internal program. We're at a point where we no longer need a separate entity.'" It doesn't appear that Wal-Mart has any qualms about publicizing the change in direct management of the Working Families organization. A visit to the group's website, www.forwalmart.com, produces this message: "Please check back soon for a new site brought to you by Wal-Mart. For now, please visit Wal-Mart Facts." Wal-Mart Facts is a site that has the heading "Get the facts and latest news about Wal-Mart from Wal-Mart."

Language plays a powerful role in shaping political decisions, argues Brent Cunningham. As an example, he points to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, "when the choice of words -- by the press and government officials -- played a crucial role in setting America on a course that led, ultimately, to our military action in Iraq. ... The decision to describe the attacks in the language of 'war,' rather than as a criminal act, emerged swiftly and organically in the earliest press accounts, and was quickly solidified and extended by President Bush and other administration officials." If the attacks had been defined using other language, such as "mass murder," this might also have defined the "terms of the response" differently, "within the domain of police investigation, criminal justice and the safeguards of law." Cunningham thinks that "journalism needs a rhetoric beat" focused on studying the uses and abuses of language, which "has emerged as a central issue in our political culture."

The League of Conservation Voters has launched a campaign that challenges U.S. political reporters to discuss the issue of global warming. During 2007, they point out, political talk show hosts on the top Sunday public affairs programs have asked 2,275 questions of U.S. presidential candidates, on questions ranging from baseball to UFOs. However, they have only mentioned global warming three times.

John Edwards: squeezed out?A USA Today article analyzing the electability of presidential candidates running in Iowa barely mentioned John Edwards, even though Edwards is the only Democrat besides Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who consistently polls in the double digits in Iowa, according to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media watchdog group that analyzes the accuracy of corporate media from a left-leaning perspective. The December 18 USA Today article titled Poll: Electability becoming more important to Dems, proposed hypothetical match-ups of Clinton and Obama against Republicans Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, and discussed how each Democratic candidate might fare against the Republicans without mentioning Edwards, even though a CNN survey done December 6-9 showed Edwards polling consistently better against Republicans than either Clinton or Obama. FAIR cites Edwards' campaign focus on corporate influence over government as a possible reason for the squeeze, and says the USA Today article is "a good example of corporate media striving to narrow down the Democratic primary field."

Smoking in Colorado's casinos due to end Jan. 1As Colorado prepares to extend its state law eliminating secondhand smoke in workplaces to include casinos as of January 1, 2008, the state's mountain gambling towns have been hard at work getting ready for the change. Casinos have been installing outdoor heaters and putting up windscreens, while some city councils have been finding ways to loosen the law. The Central City town council officially defined an "outdoor area" as any place at least 40 percent exposed to the outdoors, allowing for construction of partly-enclosed smoking areas. The state provision requires that smoking stay at least 15 feet away from building entrances to prevent smoke from getting inside buildings, but since it also allows home-rule cities to change that distance, Central City and Black Hawk both reduced their official smoking distance to all of one inch. Central City's Mayor, Buddy Schmalz, says his town has "no intention of getting around any kind of laws on the smoking ban," saying his town is just preparing for the future, but Smoke-free Gaming of Colorado, the coalition of casino employees and patrons who worked to close the loophole that allowed continued smoking in casinos, expressed disappointment that the towns are working to circumvent the state law.

Huckabee's "floating cross" campaign adRepublican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended his controversial "Floating Cross" Christmas ad against charges that he is leveraging religion to boost his campaign, but journalists trying to understand how Huckabee's religion would affect his policy decisions have largely come up empty. Journalists from Mother Jones magazine seeking copies of Huckabee's past sermons were told by Huckabee's campaign workers that they were "not able to accommodate" requests to see copies of Huckabee's past sermons. A church where Huckabee once served as pastor told the reporters that most of the archived copies of his past sermons were "lost during a remodel," and the rest were "not available to the press." So how can citizens find out how Huckabee's faith might affect his policy decisions? History gives some clues: In 1997, then-Governor Huckabee refused to sign a flood relief bill because it called devastating natural phenomena like floods are tornadoes "Acts of God." Signing such a bill, Huckabee said, would violate his conscience, since he disagreed with saying that "a destructive and deadly force" was an "act of God." Also in 1997, on the eve of a triple execution in Arkansas, Huckabee was asked on a radio call call-in show about his position on the death penalty. Huckabee responded, "Interestingly enough, if there was ever an occasion for someone to have argued against the death penalty, I think Jesus could have done so on the cross and said, 'This is an unjust punishment and I deserve clemency.' " But since he didn't ask for clemency, Huckabee's argument follows, the death penalty is just fine.

The French National Committee Against Tobacco Addiction is launching an edgy new campaign based on previous ones against AIDS/HIV, "except that there is no mention of condoms, but of cigarette butts and the 'toxic emanations of cigarettes' remaining several hours after smokers have left." The film for the campaign was conceived of pro bono by the Compagnie 360 Euro RSCG ad agency. It shows an amorous couple in a Paris dance club. A voice-over intones, "Caroline doesn't know that she is in the process of contracting a deadly disease ... because every day here she absorbs toxic substances left by the smoking of cigarettes, which stay for several hours after ... " The target of the film is second-hand, or passive, smoking. The public service announcement will show on television in conjunction with the January 1, 2008 start of a smoking ban in French dining establishments and leisure and entertainment venues.

Tags on clothing for sale at J.C. Penney that promise a donation to WWF.

'Tis the season of gift giving, and of retailers trying to grab as much of their market share as they can. While encouraging consumerism and excessive consumption, sellers also seek to tap into nobler urges toward benevolence and charity at this time of year. But, as the New York Times editorializes, "people who feed their philanthropic urges by shopping should beware. This kind of fund-raising is largely unregulated, and the few state laws that exist are mostly unenforced. There's often no telling where the money goes. As The Times recently reported, several charities named in a holiday catalog from the upscale New York retailer Barneys -- including the World Wildlife Fund -- found out they were listed only when a reporter contacted them." This cause-related marketing, or what is also referred to as embedded giving, is not new, but continues to grow, without accompanying oversight or regulation. "A host of profit-seeking sites have sprung up online, with names like benevolink.com (slogan: I Shop. Therefore I Give.) and charitymall.com, offering to satisfy the giving spirit." But Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, recently introduced a bill "that would require better notification to charities and their consent in any marketing. Buyers would have to be told how much of the item's price actually goes to the charity." The Times editorial board concludes, "For now, the old-fashioned, direct, tried and true route to charity seems best."

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a front group for the coal industry, is "sending 30 Santas to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to deliver stockings filled with coal-shaped chocolate," reports The Hill. "The goal of the campaign is to shift coal's image as a key contributor to global warming to a relatively cheap and increasingly clean provider of electricity." David Roberts predicts that "This is only the beginning of what promises to be an enormous PR campaign by an industry that sees the writing on the wall. In public, it will be smiles and Santas. Behind the scenes, it will be slime campaigns against candidates who dare propose a shift to renewable energy."

Fineman PR of San Francisco, California, has released their list of top ten PR blunders of 2007. Topping the list at number one is "No Reporters? No Problem" -- the fake news conference staged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about their response to the California wild fires. (FEMA also merited a Dishonorable Mention in CMD's 2007 Falsies Awards.) Coming in second was a poorly conceived guerrilla marketing campaign. "When Boston residents suddenly noted blinking, cryptic devices attached to bridges, bus depots and subway stations, they alerted city authorities, who shut down sections of the city to remove the devices and ensure that they were not related to a bomb threat or other terrorist activity." The culprit? The Turner Broadcasting-affiliated Cartoon Network, advertising their program "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover the military march on YouTube, Gitmo's not so anonymous defenders, and what the Lincoln Group has been up to in Iraq. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how baby bottles and Happy Meals are connected. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

The latest email bulletin from the USC Center on Public Diplomacy called our attention to a list that someone has compiled of the "Top 10 Propaganda Videos." Viewing the list in chronological order is like taking a trip through the social obsessions of yesteryear: a clip from Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 pro-Nazi film, "Triumph of the Will"; a 1943 anti-Nazi cartoon by The Walt Disney Company, and a pro-tax film from the same year featuring Donald Duck; a Communist propaganda film from Moscow in the 1940s; American anti-Communist and anti-homosexual films from the 1950s; anti-porn and anti-LSD films from the 1960s; an anti-software piracy film from the 1990s; and a recent anti-American film that denounces the war in Iraq and the Project for the New American Century.

In late November the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers announced the results of a survey of 353 East African corporate executives for its "Most Respected Company" award for 2007. The winner was the Kenyan mobile phone company, Safaricom. One of Safaricom's claims to fame is that it boasts the highest profits of any company in the region. Betty Caplan, who recounts her own unsatisfactory experience with the company's customer service, is less than impressed. "Could the highest profits in the region -- and amongst the highest on the continent -- be the result of cutting costs on customer care, and spending a lot of our hard-earned money instead on hype? And don't give me that nonsense about Corporate Social Responsibility. What they spend is the equivalent of about 5 cents to you and me and done purely to improve their image, not out of any real desire to give back to the community," she wrote.

YouTube has become de rigeur for posting official war propaganda. As CMD reported in October 2007, NATO has dedicated at least 1 million Euros (about $1.46 million U.S.) to produce and post footage to the popular video sharing site. In Britain, the Ministry of Defence (MoD), Royal Navy and Royal Air Force all have channels on YouTube, with dozens of short videos shot by or with their forces. The Multi-National Force - Iraq (MNFI) also has a presence on YouTube. Their videos include combat footage, like one titled "Close Call for Marines," deemed graphic enough by the community of YouTube users that it is necessary for viewers to sign in to prove that they are adults. Other clips of a more general, human interest nature are those like "Iraqi Boy Scouts prepare for Jamboree," which can be viewed here. "The MNFI said the purpose of its videos were to give a 'boots on the ground perspective' of Operation Iraqi Freedom." Defense analyst Gordon Mackenzie "said videos shot by soldiers on operations had been appearing on the internet for some time despite MoD efforts to control them and these have been used in the past by the BBC. However, Mr Mackenzie said videos of operations uploaded officially by the ministry and armed forces verged on sending out a political message. 'Effectively the armed forces are carrying out a political order. The Ministry of Defence is a political organisation, the army isn't, but has to find support for what it's asked to do.'" In May 2007, CMD reported that the U.S. Department of Defense had blocked soldiers and journalists from accessing YouTube and other sites when using DoD computers.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a report stating that 64 journalists died as a direct result of their profession in 2007. That marks the highest mortality rate since 1993. Nearly half of those deaths occurred in Iraq, with Somalia following in second place. 2007 is the fifth year in a row that Iraq topped the list, and the Committee reports that "most of the killings were targeted attacks, as opposed to deaths caused by cross-fire." The Committee also states that in Iraq "unidentified gunmen, suicide bombers, and American military activity" are the main perpetrators of the violence. All but one of the 31 reporters killed in Iraq were Iraqi citizens. Committee Executive Director Joel Simon said, "Working as a journalist in Iraq remains one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. These journalists gave their lives so that all of us could be informed about what is happening in Iraq."

The PR firm outed in 2005 for planting U.S. propaganda in Iraqi newspapers is still in Iraq, working for the U.S. military. The Lincoln Group, "which has conducted surveys for the military since shortly after the invasion, received a year-long contract in January to conduct focus groups," reports Karen DeYoung. The focus groups interviewed "separate groups of men and women ... in Ramadi, Najaf, Irbil, Abu Ghraib and in Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad." When asked to describe "the current situation in Iraq to a foreign visitor," most Iraqis "would describe the negative elements of life in Iraq beginning with the 'U.S. occupation' in March 2003," according to a December 2007 report. So few participants mentioned Saddam Hussein that the report states, "the current strife in Iraq seems to have totally eclipsed any agonies or grievances many Iraqis would have incurred from the past regime." The Iraqis interviewed had "far more commonalities than differences," including that they "see the departure of 'occupying forces' as the key to national reconciliation."

On a three to two party line vote, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to overturn "a 32-year-old ban," allowing "broadcasters in the nation's 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper." FCC Chair Kevin Martin, who proposed the change, called it "a relatively minor loosening" of media ownership rules. Dissenting Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein disagree. Copps commented, "We shed crocodile tears for the financial plight of newspapers -- yet the truth is that newspaper profits are about double the S&P 500 average. We pat ourselves on the back for holding six field hearings across the United States -- yet today's decision turns a deaf ear to the thousands of Americans who waited in long lines for an open mike to testify." Congress may try to overturn the change, though Bush is likely to veto any such attempt. In related news, Martin delayed a vote on product integration on television. The delay came after lobbying by "the three main U.S. advertising trade groups," though the FCC is expected to address the issue by early 2008, according to Hollywood Reporter.

One of the GE adsIn May 2005 General Electric, which is now ranked as the world's tenth largest company, launched its "Ecomagination" PR campaign. The project, the company stated, was to "address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy." But two years later it turns out that nuclear power plants get the company's count as being imaginative. The global PR blitz has been documented a little but somewhat haphazardly. However, it would be great if together we could create the best, most authoritative article on what is perhaps the boldest global greenwashing campaign around. If you'd like to help click here for the project page. If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here, and learn more about adding information to the site here, here and here. Have fun, and thanks for your help!

Spinning the thinning?Tourists love Colorado Rocky Mountain National Park's spectacular elk herds. Visitors to the park often get out of their cars and pose for photos with groups of elk grazing placidly on the green grass behind them, snow-capped Rocky Mountains filling the backdrop. The elk, which have been protected inside the park, in turn have become accustomed to the humans milling about in their midst, showing no fear and helping out Colorado's tourist economy by reliably posing pretty for photos. So the National Park Service has announced that it will try to preserve this unique and trusting inter-species relationship as it hires sharpshooters to start killing up to 200 elk a year in an attempts to thin the prolific herd. Park officials say that they will take "special precautions" to prevent the elk from associating humans with danger and death. The precautions will likely include the use of high-powered rifles fitted with silencers, and "subsonic ammunition," which can be "quietly used at close range." The Park Service refers to this as "preserving the viewability of the elk." Translation: keeping them from reacting normally and bolting up to the high country for good to escape the snipers, resulting in hordes of disappointed tourists.

"US military personnel at Guantanamo Bay called Fidel Castro a transsexual and defended the prison for terrorism suspects in anonymous web postings," according to a new report. The report "tracked web activity by service members with Guantanamo email addresses and also found they deleted prisoner identification numbers from three detainee profiles on Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia that allows anyone to change articles." Guantanamo personnel also commented on news stories online, "using apparently fictitious names. ... A comment on a Wired magazine story about a leaked Guantanamo operations manual ... urged readers to learn about Guantanamo by going to the [base's] public affairs website, adding that the base is 'a very professional place full of true American patriots.'" Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush "said there is no official attempt to alter information," but "the military seeks to correct what it believes is incorrect or outdated information about the prison." The anonymous edits were mapped to Guantanamo personnel by Wikileaks, a project that publishes government documents.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree where NLC released their reportThe National Labor Committee (NLC) has released a report on sweatshop conditions in China which pinpoints holiday items being made at Guangzhou Huanya Gift Ltd. Company for Wal-Mart, as well as for other U.S. companies, including Christmas House and Gerson Co. European clients of the factory include Christmas Elements (England), Santini Christmas (Italy), Miro (Spain), and Kugelkette (Germany). NLC director Charles Kernaghan released "A Wal-Mart Christmas Brought to You from a Sweatshop in China" in the shadow of the Christmas tree towering over Rockefeller Center in New York City. "Far from kindling the holiday spirit, the conditions under which the mostly young women workers in China produce goods for Wal-Mart are dehumanizing," the report said. Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota is now calling for trade regulation of items produced under improper work conditions. "There is nothing in the law that prohibits against imports of products made from sweatshop labor, and I think that needs to change," Dorgan said at a press conference. Dorgan added, "Chinese sweatshops now produce not only the toys under our Christmas trees, but even the ornaments that hang on those trees. It is completely against the spirit of Christmas to produce ornaments in sweatshop factories where the workers are physically abused and financially cheated. We need to get serious about keeping the products of foreign sweatshops off American shelves." Wal-Mart's spokesperson, Richard Coyle, stated that "As soon as Wal-Mart learned about the Christmas tree ornament report, we contacted the National Labor Committee and they have not returned our call. Now that we have a copy of their report, we have launched an immediate investigation." Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the world's second-largest corporation in revenue, behind ExxonMobil.

Mike HuckabeeBaptist preacher and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee denies knowing about a financial boost he received from the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company back in 1994, when RJR donated $40,000 to a secretive organization called Action America. The front group, set up by paid RJR lobbyists J.J. Vigneault and Greg Graves, worked to foster grassroots opposition to a national health care plan then being advanced by the Clinton Administration. RJR funded Huckabee to fly around the country persuading other evangelicals to oppose the health care plan proposed by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Clintons' plan was to be funded through an additional federal excise tax on cigarettes, which explains cigarette company opposition. Mr. Huckabee, now a Presidential hopeful who is running on morals and ethics, asserts that he was unaware of the donation, but Vigneault claims Huckabee was present at the meeting with the RJR representative where the idea for Action America was hatched. Vigneault even recalls that Huckabee made the rep step outside to smoke.

"Meta-analyses," or reviews of several studies' worth of data on a single drug, influence patient care and healthcare policy. Increasingly, the people carrying out these meta-analyses have financial ties to drug companies. So researchers at Stanford and the University of California, San Francisco set out "to determine whether financial ties to one drug company are associated with favourable results or conclusions in meta-analyses on antihypertensive drugs," which are taken to lower blood pressure. They found a connection between drug company ties and meta-analyses with favorable conclusions, but not favorable results. That means that -- regardless of what the data actually showed -- meta-analyses done by people with financial ties were more likely to interpret the data as favorable to the drug. The researchers conclude that "meta-analyses, as with other study types, are open to the influence of systematic bias." Their findings also suggest "a failure of peer review," since "editors and peer reviewers must have read manuscript versions of those meta-analyses containing discordant results and conclusions, yet they did not prevent publication of biased conclusions."

Placement of proposed liquid gas terminalsExxonMobil is moving forward on its plans to build a liquid gas terminal off the northeast coast of the U.S. The proposed site for the project, called BlueOcean Energy, is about 20 miles off the New Jersey shore and 30 miles south of Long Island. Reporter Jad Mouawad describes the offshore placement as "a move meant to deflect safety and environmental concerns about proximity to populated areas." Ron P. Billings, Exxon's vice president for global liquefied natural gas, said, "We have tried to learn from our past experiences and that of the industry in general." The offshore neighborhood is getting crowded since "the Atlantic Sea Island Group, plans to build a terminal for liquefied natural gas on an artificial island about 14 miles south of Long Island, a project called Safe Harbor Energy." CMD reported earlier this year on Shell's successful efforts to co-opt local non-profits through grantmaking. The Shell project, Broadwater Energy, is a joint venture by Royal Dutch Shell and TransCanada.

Major food companies are planning "to halt advertising junk food to children under 12 throughout Europe," but in the U.S., McDonald's has found "a nifty way to reach kids ... advertise on report cards." The fast food giant "picked up the $1,600 cost of printing report-card jackets for the 2007-2008 school year in Seminole County, [Florida], in exchange for a Happy Meal coupon on the card's cover." The promotion is an apparent violation of the Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative, which McDonald's joined last year. Initiative members agree "to limit advertising to children under 12 and focus on better-for-you options." In other advertising news, a New York billboard for an A&E television show "uses technology ... that transmits an 'audio spotlight' from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium." A&E deemed the "creepy" voices-in-your-head effect perfect for the show, which is about ghosts. But Gawker asked, "How soon will it be until in addition to the Do Not Call list, we'll have a Do Not Beam Commercial Messages Into My Head list?"

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover the reality behind oil companies' green rhetoric, who will replace Karen Hughes at the State Department, and the evolution of President Bush's statements on Iran. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from U.S. public diplomacy to Burmese military repression. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!

"Sixty percent of US consumers polled agree that the government should regulate the sale of violent or mature video games," states a press release from the PR firm Hill & Knowlton (H&K). The video game industry's Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was not amused -- especially because H&K had "conducted the survey as a way to show how eager it was to get the association as a client." (ESA hired Powell Tate instead; H&K says it planned the poll before its pitch to ESA.) An ESA spokesperson called H&K's actions "unprofessional and unethical," adding that H&K's "release of only part of the findings paints an inaccurate picture of the entertainment software industry." Another question "is whether research done" to get new clients "tends to unfairly highlight negative aspects ... in hopes of underscoring the need for PR or public affairs services," according to PR Week. In related news, the PR firm Kohnke Communications is suing a software developer for "outstanding payments," reports Ars Technica. Kohnke's legal filings say the firm "convinc[ed video game] reviewers to write positive reviews," and that -- along with other "pre-launch successes" -- should get the firm "an incentive compensation payment of up to $280,000 after the launch of Gods & Heroes," the video game in question.

Concerned that public opinion is firmly on the side of striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) members, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) hired a bipartisan stable of new PR consultants. The studio owners' group "retained Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane, who have served as senior aides and advisors to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore," among other Democrats. AMPTP also hired Steve Schmidt, "a close advisor to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports the Los Angeles Times. On the Firedoglake blog, Jane Hamsher writes about the fallout. Education workers with SEIU Local 99 in Los Angeles have fired Lehane "from a consulting contract in support of the WGA." SEIU President Andy Stern said, "By the end of the week, I believe Chris Lehane will have no union clients because of his work for the AMPTP."

"Shell, the oil company that recently trumpeted its commitment to a low carbon future ... has quietly sold off most of its solar business," reports Terry Macalister. "The move, taken with BP's decision last week to invest in the world's dirtiest oil production in Canada's tar sands, indicates that Big Oil might be giving up its flirtation with renewables." A Shell spokesperson said the company's solar operations were "not bringing in any profit." Shell still invests in some wind farms and biofuels operations. Pratap Chatterjee questions the environmental impact of "the world's largest bio-diesel facility," which Finland's Neste Oil plans to build in Singapore. "The scheme could exacerbate global warming," he reports for CorpWatch. The "$800 million plant will use palm oil," boosting "demand for new palm oil plantations that displace environmentally sensitive forests." Chatterjee is also skeptical of General Electric's "clean coal" claims. "'Clean coal' technologies are only marginally more efficient [at reducing emissions] and far more expensive. Others ... are still on the drawing board and may never work."

As one of her last acts as Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Karen Hughes unveiled a new short film that will be shown in "the waiting areas of more than 200 American embassies and consulates around the world." Titled "I am America," the film was commissioned by the group Business for Diplomatic Action (BDA), created by the Omnicom-owned ad agency GSD&M Idea City, and donated to the U.S. State Department. The State Department explains that "the idea for the film emerged from brainstorming sessions involving ... Karen Hughes, her staffers and BDA. U.S. officials wanted to correct misperceptions of the United States as an unfriendly and insular place." In addition to the video, Hughes announced "a photo book called 'America Is' for young people overseas; and a new America.gov website providing information for audiences around the world." Walt Disney recently donated a similar film to the State Department, called "Welcome: Portraits of America," which is being shown in the international arrivals areas of major U.S. airports.

Wading through the thousands of votes that Congress performs each year can be an arduous task, but the CMD staff has created the Congresspedia Voting Record Resource Center to help you get to the bottom of what your senators and representative have been doing in Washington. There you'll find step-by-step instructions on how to add information on how they voted on topics like immigration, torture and children's healthcare to their "permanent record" - their Congresspedia profile. By participating, you ensure that the thousands of your fellow citizens who read these profiles will be that much more educated about our government. Head on over to the Voting Record Resource Center to get started. Have fun and, on behalf of your fellow citizens, thanks!

James K. Glassman will soon be nominated as the next U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, reports Associated Press. Glassman would replace PR czar Karen Hughes, who plans to leave her State Department post by the end of 2007. Glassman currently chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees U.S. government-funded international broadcasts like the Voice of America. He is also a fellow at the conservative think tank the American Enterprise Institute, a columnist and the author of the book "Dow 36000." In 2000, Glassman founded Tech Central Station (TCS), a "journo-lobbying" website then published by the Republican lobbying firm DCI Group. TCS runs articles and opinions friendly to its corporate sponsors. "Glassman was chosen in part because he has already won Senate confirmation," explains AP, "and the administration was looking for someone who could avoid a bruising confirmation fight in an election year." Glassman served on the "Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World," whose 2003 report (PDF) faulted the "absurd and dangerous underfunding of public diplomacy in a time of peril."

TV coverage of the fake FEMA press conferenceOn December 6, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) "conducted a communications workshop for external affairs and management staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency at FEMA's offices in Washington, D.C." PRSA offered the workshop after FEMA's controversial fake news conference in October, where FEMA staffers played reporter, asking their boss softball questions. PRSA's press release said the workshop was the first time "that a federal government agency formally engaged and consulted the Society ... involving staff on the topics of crisis communications, ethics and reputation management." PRSA hopes the workshop "will be the beginning of an ongoing interaction with FEMA -- as well as an open door to relationships with other government agencies," according to its press release. PRSA has also worked with the U.S. State Department "on public diplomacy for Congressional members and their staff," reports O'Dwyer's. In 2000, PRSA revamped its ethics code, getting rid of all internal enforcement mechanisms.

"It's an oddly familiar pattern of deception," writes Dan Froomkin. While President Bush continues to make ominous statements about Iran, since early August 2007 he has not made "explicit assertions of an Iranian nuclear weapons program." Instead, Bush has been "vaguely accusing [Iran] of seeking the knowledge necessary to make such a weapon." For instance, on March 31, Bush said, "Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, and a major threat to world peace is if the Iranians had a nuclear weapon." On August 28, Bush criticized "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons." Froomkin writes that Bush's goal may have been to avoid "demonstrably false" statements while leaving "listeners with what he likely knew was a fundamentally false impression." A recent intelligence report concluded that Iran's nuclear weapons program ended in 2003. That news caused CNN to pull "We Were Warned -- Iran Goes Nuclear," a program scheduled to air on December 12. It featured "former high-ranking officials," including Christine Todd Whitman, playing out "a scenario set a few years in the future in which they responded to news of an Iranian nuclear weapons program," reports Philadelphia Daily News. Asked about the tenor of the show at a time when many are concerned about U.S. posturing towards Iran, CNN's Mark Nelson said, "We weren't fueling the fire."

The Delaware-based group Common Sense Issues is using automated phone calls to Iowa voters to talk up Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and spread negative information about his rivals. Mitt Romney's campaign has asked the Iowa attorney general to investigate the push poll calls. Common Sense Issues, which hired the ccAdvertising firm for the calls, also set up a website and "hopes to run TV ads and launch get-out-the-vote efforts on Huckabee's behalf." Huckabee has asked the group to stop the calls. Other possibly illegal push poll calls "made in New Hampshire last month ... conveyed negative remarks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and flattering remarks about John McCain," reports the New Hampshire Union Leader. The calls "were placed by Western Wats of Orem, Utah," though it's not clear who hired them. Western Wats has "conducted polling for the Tarrance Group, which works for candidate Rudy Giuliani," though "several employees of Western Wats have made donations to the Romney campaign."

Listen to this week's edition of the "Weekly Radio Spin," the Center for Media and Democracy's audio report on the stories behind the news. This week, we cover "green" marketing, the cynical uses of corporate social responsibility, and what the White House really thinks of bloggers and reporters. In "Six Degrees of Spin and Fakin'," we tell you how many steps it takes to get from baby bottles to the pro-war lobby group Freedom's Watch. The Weekly Radio Spin is freely available for personal and broadcast use. Podcasters can subscribe to the XML feed on www.prwatch.org/audio or via iTunes. If you air the Weekly Radio Spin on your radio station, please email us at editor@prwatch.org to let us know. Thanks!